Why is Herman Cain the flavor of the week, yet again?...
I blame network news.
The first priority of a profit driven network TV entertainment/news division is the classic, "If it bleeds, it leads".
But first, after the break … a brief history of the evolution of network news.
In the not too distant past, network news was a separate division, profit center. Although, news divisions were usually revenue losers. News gathering and investigative reporting was expensive and a drain on network assets.
Walter Cronkite reporting the news
News divisions were also sacrosanct to the point that news commentary had to be labeled as such and entertainment programming was prohibited from news broadcasts. The networks accepted this expense as a public service in exchange for the privilege to have a broadcast license.
Then, along came cable and satellite services and most recently digital broadcasting. FCC licensing no longer seems to be the necessary evil it once was.
A long time ago, the networks began to profitize the News divisions by placing News under control of the Entertainment divisions.
This practice was depicted as far back as the basis for Howard Beale's rant in the movie Network (1976).
And, now we have ...
If it isn't bleeding it MUST be about something STUPID a celebrity did or said.
Bleeding and Stupid sell.
Herman Cain, the successful motivational speaker, even used "stupid" to sell books:
From blood on Scott Olsen's face at OCCUPY Oakland to anything Lindsey Lohan, or her parents do for that matter, become lead stories.
It's not a particularly effective way of reporting the state of affairs of a city, state or the nation, but blood and stupity sells, keeping ratings up and advertisers clamoring for more commercial time on news broadcasts.
Just think about the last local news program you watched. The stories are all about the stupid things that stupid people do. Usually about murder, rape and mayhem of all sorts. They close with a heartwarming story about the winner of the spelling bee and sign off.
I have no other explanation why Herman Cain is leading the pack of Republican Presidential hopefuls other than he is the most STUPID political celebrity currently on the public stage and network news execs and their bottom line love him for it.
7:39 PM PT: Looks like more Herman Cain as the front-runner for possibly another weekly news cycle.
Yep, something else stupid was unearthed the network news folks will obsess about for days on end.
See tonight's posting by Jed Lewison: http://www.dailykos.com/...